00:01:50.360So thank you very much for coming tonight.
00:01:52.460So I'm going to talk for about 70 minutes, and then we'll do a Q&A.
00:01:57.640And if Michaela has a question, then she can ask me that question.
00:02:01.380Otherwise, we'll turn to the questions from the audience.
00:02:05.220So I always, I sit backstage before these talks, and I think about what I'm working on,
00:02:14.300because I'm always working on the material that I talk about when I lecture.
00:02:18.200i'm really in the absolutely final stages of finishing the book this tour is based on
00:02:27.500i actually wrote three books while i was writing this book so i have a pathway laid out into the
00:02:35.380future this book we who wrestle with god concentrates mostly on old testament stories and i
00:02:43.000I finished that with the story of Job, which is an Old Testament story about suffering, and then also an analysis of the Gospels, but that turned out to be a far more complicated venture than I thought it might, and so that's going to be a separate book, which is fine with me.
00:03:03.920I also, by the way, many of you, some of you, have watched the lectures I did in 2017 on Genesis.
00:03:16.480And then I followed that up with a seminar with The Daily Wire, which we also put on YouTube, courtesy of The Daily Wire, on Exodus.
00:03:25.800And I brought the same people back together who were part of that Exodus seminar.
00:03:31.320And we did a seminar in Nashville the first week of April on the Gospels.
00:03:36.340And so that'll be—they're going to have that whipped up in about three months, I think, something like that.
00:03:42.400And so I've done a reasonably—well, I wouldn't say comprehensive analysis of the Gospels.
00:03:52.360I think, is it John? Is it Gospel of John that ends with a statement that if all the books that had ever been written,
00:04:01.320had been written about the events in the gospels that still wouldn't be enough books to cover
00:04:07.060the material at hand to tell the story properly and there's some real truth in that
00:04:12.100for a variety of very complicated reasons in any case
00:04:18.280i sit backstage before these talks and i review what i've been working on what i've been writing
00:04:26.820about what i've been thinking about because one of the real advantages to this tour the tour that
00:04:34.160i've really been on with my wife and some of my family for it's like six years really um is that
00:04:44.000i have an opportunity to think on my feet you know three or four times a week for 90 minutes or
00:04:50.060thereabouts that's really a great it's a great opportunity right it's a it's a rare opportunity
00:04:56.100of course to have to have a constantly changing audience of thousands of people that's amazing
00:05:02.840enough in itself but then also to have that opportunity to think through what i'm working on
00:05:09.260and then present it to see if i can get the ideas straight but simultaneously make them
00:05:16.700comprehensible right that's a huge a huge element of having an audience at hand you know if you pay
00:05:22.900attention this is a good thing to do if you're ever going to speak publicly you don't speak
00:05:26.960don't speak to the crowd that makes everybody nervous you speak to a crowd there's a thousand
00:05:33.260people or three thousand people evaluating you that's going to make you nervous well that's not
00:05:40.560the right way to conceptualize it first of all it's not about you that's the first thing to know
00:05:47.740when you're speaking in public you should be you should be serving something when you're speaking
00:05:54.940in public you should be serving well at least your aim if your aim is self-aggrandizement then
00:06:01.320it's going to make you nervous because then it's about you and there's actually no difference
00:06:05.260between being self-conscious and being miserable and nervous and so one of the things you might
00:06:11.340derive from that observation the next time you become nervous publicly is whether or not
00:06:17.840it's about you because if it was about the person you're talking to or if it was about
00:06:23.040the topic at hand or the higher purpose that you're attempting to serve and you were really
00:06:28.200concentrating on that your self-consciousness would vanish and along with it the anxiety and
00:06:35.080and shame that's attendant on that it's very interesting you know that we become ashamed
00:06:42.440when we become self-conscious why would that be the case it's like well it's because
00:06:47.920if it's about you that's a sin and there's an instinct that signifies that and that's the
00:06:55.260instinct that makes you blush right it's it's an indication from the deepest reservoirs of your soul
00:07:02.100or your deepest instincts if you want to think about it biologically that you're acting in a
00:07:07.580manner that doesn't serve the communal interest or your own future because it's about you and it's
00:07:14.060it's strangely about you you know it's about it's not even about you in the higher sense it's not
00:07:19.860about the you that would fit well into a marriage or a family or a community or a or a state or a
00:07:27.940it's more about the immediately gratified you that's looking for narcissistic self-aggrandizement
00:07:36.500and that is not the best version of you that's for sure like seriously it serves no master except
00:07:43.640your narrow whim and that's part of wrestling with God so I was backstage today and I was thinking
00:07:52.320I usually try to think about a question right because one of the things you want to do
00:07:57.560if you're thinking if you're praying if you're meditating if you're speaking publicly and
00:08:04.020deliberating if you're having a conversation even that's a deep conversation is you want to have a
00:08:09.360question at hand right it's like you're trying to investigate something which is what i'm trying to
00:08:14.400do when i do these lectures i'm trying to investigate something i'm trying to get further
00:08:18.900in my thinking that's a form of wrestling as well you know and i thought that the question that came
00:08:25.660to mind tonight as i wrap up my book and near the end of this tour as well is is to further
00:08:33.340my understanding and explication of what it means to wrestle with god that's the name of the tour
00:08:39.500it's the name of the book it also happens to be the meaning of the word israel which signifies
00:08:48.720the chosen people of God and I learned that in 2017 it really struck me because we tend to think
00:08:57.280of the ancient Hebrews or even perhaps the modern Jews as the chosen people of God but the biblical
00:09:03.620text is quite clear in its insistence that the word Israel means those who wrestle with God and
00:09:09.380the reason that struck me was because I understood at least to some degree what that wrestling meant
00:09:15.340which is part of what i'm going to talk about tonight but i also thought it's a very expansive
00:09:20.640definition of the chosen people because everyone wrestles with god and you might say well i don't
00:09:27.000believe in god it's like well we're going to get into that tonight because there are there are no
00:09:35.280non-belief stances in life this is a very interesting thing to understand about faith
00:09:41.100is you're going to have faith in something it might be nothing it might be nothing that you
00:09:45.940have faith in well that makes you a like a fractionated nihilist and but even under those
00:09:51.800conditions if you are a fractionated and faithless nihilist let's say who believes in nothing
00:09:58.320it isn't even the case that you believe in nothing the case is that you then serve
00:10:04.740the spirit of your own whims right because if you truly believed in nothing you just perish
00:10:12.420i've had very very depressed people let's say in my clinical practice who really had abandoned
00:10:19.780faith in virtually everything like they were truly suffering from a deep nihilism and that's fatal
00:10:28.040like if you're a true believer in nothing and i'm not accusing my depressed clients of
00:10:33.760being faithless like depression is a very complicated condition and it it can emerge
00:10:38.680it's a pain condition most fundamentally and it can emerge for all sorts of reasons including
00:10:43.820physical illness there's many pathways to depression but the end point of a truly nihilistic
00:10:50.260depression tends to be either suicide or the wish for non-existence right and so the belief in
00:10:57.800Nothing devolves into like a degenerate hopelessness.
00:11:02.440And if it doesn't devolve into that, it devolves into something like, well, like the attitude that Dostoevsky's character Raskolnikov adopts in his famous book Crime and Punishment.
00:11:16.020It devolves into something like the belief that if there's no God, everything is permitted, which is a famous line from Dostoevsky.
00:11:24.900a very astute a very brilliant criticism of the atheistic presumption if there's no god then
00:11:32.360everything is permitted and that devolves into something like a an immature and impulsive
00:11:37.640hedonism right if there's no higher purpose why the hell shouldn't you just do whatever the hell
00:11:41.880you want with whoever you want under whatever circumstances present themselves if it results
00:11:48.400in your own pleasure let's say momentary though that may be especially if you can get away with
00:11:54.440it if you have some power why not do that and that's a you know the typical reductionistic
00:12:00.400atheist would say well that isn't what you do if you were a good person but the right objection to
00:12:05.160that is good by what standard exactly what do you mean by good and where does that conception come
00:12:12.000from and what is it this rationalistic conception of good that you think rules over people who are
00:12:18.460somehow sensible enough to be ethical it's like that's a very naive view of the world and if you've
00:12:23.740ever met any truly bad people you'll understand that that argument bounces off them like what
00:12:30.480would you say it's like shooting it's like shooting it's like shooting down at a rhinoceroses
00:12:37.740rhinoceros it's just it just has no impact whatsoever is it called peterson academy
00:12:44.260peterson academy peterson academy it's called peterson academy peterson academy if you want
00:12:49.240an actual education with hand selected professors from top universities around the world bringing
00:12:55.820the best professors together making sure they're not censored in any way giving them the audience
00:12:59.760and the remuneration and appreciation they deserve and you were true to your word you gave
00:13:02.920me absolute intellectual autonomy i have had it through every course we figure we can offer people
00:13:07.840a high quality university level education for under two thousand dollars well congratulations
00:13:12.780jordan it's honestly brilliant can't wait to enroll myself i'll be doing that straight after this
00:13:31.520The first thing I would propose to you, perhaps,1.00
00:13:35.480is that you wrestle in part because you're ignorant0.99
00:13:40.900and life is beyond you in its complexity and possibilities.0.94
00:13:47.060and so what do i mean by that well you don't know everything in fact there's a lot you don't know
00:13:52.700there's way more that you don't know than you think even and that doesn't really doesn't really
00:13:57.400matter who you are right i mean experts are aware of the limitations of their own knowledge in their
00:14:04.160field of expertise but they're generally not aware of how limited their knowledge is in fields they're
00:14:08.740not expert in and so you can be ignorant about your own ignorance and there's some relief in that
00:14:14.240but but that's just an indication of how much you don't know no imagine what you know about a
00:14:22.580military helicopter you kind of know what one is you could probably draw one at about the same level
00:14:29.240of skill as your average four-year-old but that's pretty much the sum total of your understanding
00:14:34.640and there are things in the world that are a lot more complicated than military helicopters and so
00:14:40.680a lot of what you know is pretty damn patchy and so how do you make your way in the world
00:14:48.980in the face of all that ignorance and the answer is you take some walloping risks
00:14:54.360you sort of hurl yourself into the unknown right and you do that likely armed with something
00:15:02.820approximating principles and so and you you pay your fee and you take your chances and
00:15:11.080what that means in some fundamental sense is that you have to confront the world with faith okay so
00:15:18.100what do i mean by that i want to be very specific about this see in the modern world when you hear
00:15:24.400people who are religious or a religious or anti-religious debate they often start with
00:15:31.300a disagreement about faith and the atheistic rationalist types accuse the religious of
00:15:39.260faith in nonsense right the faith of a child the faith that a child might have in santa claus
00:15:45.460except it's the old man with a beard in the sky right that it's faith in superstition it's faith
00:15:51.280in the religious description of the world as if it's a scientific theory about the world but that
00:15:57.000isn't really what faith means not in the most fundamental sense if you have faith in something
00:16:03.520you commit to it right and that means you sort of throw yourself all in in relationship to that
00:16:10.240so let's just think about that how that plays out in your own life well you do that when you get
00:16:15.900married well obviously because like what the hell do you know about your future partner about what0.87
00:16:22.540you're going to encounter together right you're you're even more ignorant about the person that0.81
00:16:27.580you've fallen in love with than you are about yourself and so that's pretty much an unfathomable0.98
00:16:32.820ignorance and especially when you put the two of you together because you're both mysterious
00:16:37.540to each other and to yourselves and then when you put yourself together that unit is even more
00:16:43.460mysterious than the sum of its incomprehensible parts and so how do you manage the marriage
00:16:49.460you know and the answer is well it's difficult it's difficult it's challenging but you you
00:16:55.800manage it with a vow predicated commitment that's the first thing right it's it's it's you engage in
00:17:02.640a kind of a mutual beneficial shockling and and it's a bet and it's a faith predicated bet and
00:17:09.940the bet is i'm going to take my chances with you if you're willing to do the same and we're both
00:17:16.400going to presume because what do you have for proof we're going to presume that we can muddle
00:17:22.080through this mess better together than we could apart right and that's a very negative way of
00:17:27.820putting it and i don't really want to do that well it's good to be you know bloody minded and
00:17:33.360and and non-naive about such things i mean i know there's a huge positive upside you you fall in
00:17:40.060love with someone and you want to have them with you and you want to continue your adventure with
00:17:44.900them and but i'm thinking more about the times when life is very difficult and the relationship
00:17:50.680is strained at least in part because of that complexity you know you've made an all-in bet
00:17:56.180and you do that in faith and it's a sacrificial gesture as well very and this is something to
00:18:03.140understand too is that virtually all the important decisions in our life are sacrificial gestures
00:18:07.680because we give up much of what could be to have something that actually is and that's what you do
00:18:14.880in a marriage right is that you forego all others and that's a lot of potential that's
00:18:20.960no longer at hand at least potential of a certain type but but you you bargain with fate in faith
00:18:29.040in the assumption that the possibility that will reveal itself in consequence of the faith-based
00:18:36.060commitment that you make to your partner is a possibility or potential that's richer in its
00:18:42.200potential return than what you might gain by investigating continually investigating all other
00:18:48.800options right but what do you know you know did you find the person that was best for you well
00:18:53.800first of all that's a foolish quest to begin with because then it's about you and we already
00:18:58.640established that that's a mistake right it should be about what you can offer to the other person but
00:19:03.980but you still leap into the abyss with your partner in good faith right and it's a good
00:19:13.180bargain all things considered i don't you know if you know this but i think this is insanely comical
00:19:18.320about as comical as the fact that the babylon bee exists i mean christian satirists like where the0.86
00:19:24.800hell did they come from that's like a complete impossibility but you know who has the most sex
00:19:31.240this is hilarious religious married people right so that no one would have guessed that like in0.98
00:19:39.020in 1968 when all the flower children were out there you know fornicating in the ellies and so0.78
00:19:45.560dawn of the sexual revolution we'll all be free it's like 30 percent of japanese people under0.82
00:19:54.300the age of 30 are now virgins right and we're creeping up on that in in all across the west0.84
00:19:59.920because it turns out that the net consequence of the unbridled hedonism of the sexual revolution
00:20:06.180is that relationships and sex just disappear right so it's very what a paradoxical realization
00:20:13.220that is is that if you take sex out of its box you destroy it and so no one no one saw that coming
00:20:21.120that's for sure but it's it really does it truly seems to be the case and you know the evidence
00:20:27.620for that is accruing quite rapidly in all sorts of different dimensions so you leap into a marriage
00:20:33.260in faith and that's a wrestling with faith you know and you do that in part because you see
00:20:39.660you might say well what do you have your what do you have faith in in relationship to a marriage
00:20:45.300and some of it's obviously tradition and community right because if you didn't have faith in
00:20:50.880tradition you wouldn't get married you just live together living together by the way doesn't seem
00:20:56.120to be a very good solution couples who live together before they get married are much more
00:21:00.680likely to get divorced not less turns out you can't just try someone out like you might like
00:21:06.260a used car hopefully not one that's too used let's say sorry about that couldn't couldn't resist
00:21:16.460couldn't resist so no it looks like to establish a relationship with someone given how short life
00:21:23.420in is and how high the stakes are is that you have to make a commitment and you actually don't get
00:21:29.520the relationship without the commitment and if you try to have the relationship without the
00:21:33.120commitment you just destroy the relationship and even the possibility of relationship and so that's
00:21:38.260a weird thing because it sort of suggests that to have the advantage of a marriage you have to take
00:21:43.780all the risks up front and that the evidence you don't have evidence for that at the beginning
00:21:48.680quite the contrary so you have to leap in well on what basis well you have some faith in tradition
00:21:53.580because marriage is a traditional uh arrangement right and you might be all annoyed about that
00:22:00.520and think that marriage is nothing but an extension of the power mad patriarchy into the
00:22:04.600private realm and who needs a piece of paper anyways and but the but the uh the evidence
00:22:10.880suggests that that's not a very productive attitude for you or for your community you leap in
00:22:18.100in faith and in faith in what well to some degree in faith in tradition as we already defined it
00:22:25.360faith in the religious tradition even because most people who get married get married in church and
00:22:30.960the secular replacements for a religious religious predicated wedding are pretty dismal and dry and
00:22:39.740so the religious enterprise itself certainly brings something to bear on the sacrament of marriage
00:22:45.380defining it even as a sacrament and you also have faith in love right which is an interesting thing
00:22:52.780to have faith in because it can lead you astray especially if you're a little demented in your
00:22:58.060vision to begin with but you have faith in love and that's an interesting thing to just carry with
00:23:03.260you and faith in love is well what is that exactly is that faith in a deepest deep instinct obviously
00:23:11.440because speaking biologically again obviously love is part of the web of instincts that binds
00:23:16.960us together but it does more than that right it reveals what does it do is it reveals the wonder
00:23:22.660of the other person to you reveals maybe what's best about you you know because if someone's
00:23:28.620foolish enough to fall in love with you they are attempting attempting to establish a relationship
00:23:35.040i would say with what's best in you that's probably what they see and that's what makes0.99
00:23:40.820them fall in love right and you know you can be a cynic and call that a delusion but you really0.97
00:23:46.780have to be a fool to be that cynical because even if you're cynical about that in relationship to a0.97
00:23:52.740romantic partner are are you cynical like that in relationship to the love you have for your1.00
00:23:57.580for your children i mean if you're that cynical well god help you like seriously well seriously
00:24:05.340You know, I mean, you have to be a cynical person indeed to question the intrinsic value of the love that you would feel for a small child, for your own child, for other children, for that matter.
00:24:18.960And one of the things that really shocked me when we first had little kids was how having them brought out the best in everyone around.
00:24:27.000You don't even know this till you're a parent and you have a little kid and then, you know, you're ferrying your little kid down the street.
00:24:33.200And even the hardened street alcoholics do their best to smile and, you know, act momentarily like relatively civilized human beings capable of love when they see, you know, a small child who's sort of enticed and entranced by the world.
00:24:51.180And so you have to be very damaged in your soul before that love that what naturally obtains between adults with any moral orientation left in them at all and children.
00:25:08.780And so you have faith in love to be married.
00:51:52.400To explain this, I'm going to offer you another key to the biblical text.
00:51:56.500Okay, so one of the tools that you need to know to understand the essence of the biblical text is that work and sacrifice are the same thing.
00:52:11.320Okay, because it's very difficult for modern people to actually understand what our ancestors were on about when they talked about the necessity of sacrifice, the building of an altar, the offering of what's best.
00:52:21.660it was an acting out of the notion of something like the essence of work what's the essence of
00:52:28.240work bring your best to the table right but but in this but in a particular way what does it mean
00:52:34.240to work it means to sacrifice the present for the future right and i want you to consider that very
00:52:43.160very carefully that's what it means if you're working you're not doing what it is that your
00:52:48.800whims would have you do right this moment right or even even the spirit of play within you you're
00:52:56.320not doing what you want you're doing what you have to do have to do for what well you're making a
00:53:06.720bargain well what's the bargain work now benefit your family and your community and stabilize the
00:53:15.240future right that's off that's this is the human motive of existence work and sacrifice this is
00:53:22.200unique to human beings this is what we do is we extend our consciousness across the entire span0.78
00:53:28.020of time at least for the duration of our lives and we say don't do something stupid today that's
00:53:33.460going to screw up next week right or next year or next month invest now so that there's a future
00:53:39.100return well that's a contractual relationship right there's an offer there which is if you
00:53:44.680tread the mature path and make the offerings that are of the highest quality then then what
00:53:50.920you're guaranteed a pathway forward in the manner that benefits the community and stabilizes the
00:53:58.380future is that a bargain is that a covenant is that an agreement well what do you think you're
00:54:04.380doing when you're saving or you're investing right that's a contractual relationship there's a
00:54:09.920relationship there's a relational element built into our mode of adaptation and you could say
00:54:15.100well you're really only drawing a contract with your future self and the broader community
00:54:23.840storing the value that you've created in the social world in the form of money let's say or
00:54:29.920actual investment the relationship is actually with other people or your future self but you
00:54:35.320know that to me that just muddies the water because you and your future self are a reflection
00:54:44.240of the fundamental order of existence and so is the harmony that a community that will deliver
00:54:51.920on its promise and so the notion that the relationship is only social ignores the fact
00:54:59.620that the society that functions in a manner
00:55:03.720that enables it to sustain that contractual obligation, right?
00:55:10.500That has to reflect an underlying fundamental order or it'll collapse.
00:55:14.780And so it's relation with the spirit of the cosmic order,
00:55:18.480no matter what bloody way you slice it, as far as I can tell.
00:55:21.560And it's as real as your belief in work.
00:55:24.400so abraham establishes a covenantal relationship with with the upward aim okay so how's that
00:55:33.780signified this is something you can understand in your own life too you know bloody well that the
00:55:38.440moments of true transformation in your life come when you consciously determine to aim up
00:55:47.720or down you know let's go for down first i don't know you're gripped by the spirit of bitter
00:55:53.080resentment and you decide in consequence to wreak vengeance and to wreak havoc and take vengeance
00:55:59.280and act out your darkest desires knowing full well that you've committed to following a very dark
00:56:06.840spirit at that moment you can do that but you can take the alternative route too and this is more
00:56:11.520the upward path the pathway towards maturation and i would say proper adventure you could decide0.99
00:56:17.120enough stupidity. I'm going to try to be better. What does that mean? Well, it means that insofar0.99
00:56:25.000as you're capable, with your obscured vision, you're going to aim up. Now, is your upward aim
00:56:30.660unerring and accurate? No. Why? Well, because what the hell do you know? Plus, think of all the
00:56:36.440mistakes you've made. So you're blind and foolish in your initial forays upward, but that doesn't0.99
00:56:42.900mean that the determination is false or that it will steer you wrong and you see this repeatedly0.93
00:56:48.780in the old testament accounts because the heroes in the old testament are very flawed so jacob
00:56:55.080for example he's a complete he's a terrible young man he he does nothing but conspire with his
00:57:02.220enabling mother to trick and deceive his older brother out of what's rightfully his that's
00:57:08.500jacob but abraham as we already said it's like he's 70 before he gets up enough courage to step
00:57:14.140outside the tent and then the first second thing he does is lie to the egyptian authorities about0.95
00:57:20.860who his wife is it's not exactly covering himself in glory um why well we're all fools when we start
00:57:30.500but that doesn't mean that the upward aim is false it just means that we improve as we develop and
00:57:37.740as we make the proper sacrifices what does that mean well when you're no longer a child you put
00:57:43.780away childish things it means and you know this as your opportunities expand you're called upon
00:57:49.380to leave the idiocies of your past behind and to become to become what who you could be to become
00:57:56.320more truly who you are what to align yourself with the voice of adventure in the cosmic order
00:58:01.840itself right and to engage in this never-ending series of progressious progressive transformations
00:58:08.880that help you strip all the dead wood away from you and that constitute the never-ending series
00:58:18.160of mountains and valleys that you climb on your way to the top of mount sinai let's say to the
00:58:23.880ultimate pinnacle right that's that's the adventure that abraham is invited to embark upon and it
00:58:33.920doesn't really matter where he starts and that harkens back to the notion well he's 70 when he
00:58:39.100starts and you're going to be flawed when you if you decide to aim up but you know people do this
00:58:45.260in their life they they take stock at some point or maybe sequentially and think well there's a lot
00:58:50.760of foolish things i'm still doing that i could stop there's there's some upward aim that i could
00:58:56.060manage you know even in my blindness i can see that this is better than this and i could pursue
00:59:01.140what's better you don't have to but you could and you could see that and your your ability to see
00:59:07.920that's your offering to the divine that's your invitation to the spirit of adventure to guide you
00:59:13.040forward more thoroughly and that's an accelerating path too you know christ says something brilliant
00:59:19.660surprisingly enough in the gospel of matthew no to those who have much more will be given what does
00:59:25.980that mean it means that once you start improving it's an exponentially increasing process and so
00:59:31.800you can start in a pretty bloody lowly place like christ himself does in the manger or moses for
00:59:37.320example when he's threatened at birth by the pharaoh you could start in a very precarious
00:59:42.580and lowly place and that's no necessary impediment to your progress forward and that's a hell of an
00:59:48.320optimistic thing to understand that there might be enough possibility at hand for you no matter
00:59:54.540what your apparent situation so that the potential for continual upward transformation is at your
01:00:01.240fingertips if you knock you know and let the door open if you if you ask and enable yourself to
01:00:08.480receive that's a real possibility and it's it's the realest of possibilities i believe is why
01:00:15.080you're not to construe yourself as a helpless victim it's like you don't know it but everything
01:00:20.080you need is right in front of you if you would only approach it with the proper aim in mind and
01:00:25.420that would be the aim that's the ultimate upward aim so this is what god tells abraham it's so cool
01:00:33.380you can imagine this again as a hard-headed biologist so imagine that there's an instinct
01:00:38.440within children to mature you don't really have to imagine that's like they're curious they're
01:00:44.520exploratory you know that more extroverted kids even when they're three my son was quite
01:00:49.740extroverted fearless when he was young we'd take him to the playground and putting him on the
01:00:55.000ground at the playground was like holding a puppy above a puddle you know puppy will start paddling
01:00:59.800before it even hits the water that was julian his feet would be moving before he hit the ground and
01:01:04.780we'd put him down and just be gone out there into the playground to investigate and to make friends
01:01:10.840you know and often to get him to leave we'd have to walk like a quarter of a mile away
01:01:16.460so that the threat of being left behind was sufficient to disengage him from the
01:01:22.480interesting exploration at hand and that's all part of the manifestation of that impulse to grow
01:01:30.260right and what is that the impulse to follow what compels you forward to pursue your interests
01:01:35.420to abide by the dictates of your conscience it's all something like that and then imagine that
01:01:40.540that is the instinct again to speak biologically that motivates you to stay on the at the edge of
01:01:49.780what you understand so that you can continue to develop in the manner that what would fit you
01:01:59.660most properly if you were all in on the bet right could be right now so why would we assume
01:02:07.240anything other than that the instinct that impels you to develop is also the instinct that would
01:02:13.640guide you in your attempts to wrestle with fate and god itself himself to take your proper place
01:02:20.580in the world you'd have to propose a mismatch between your psychobiology or your soul and the
01:02:27.000environment itself for that not to be true right and so what does god offer abraham it's the best
01:02:33.260of all possible covenants the best of all possible deals and it speaks of an alignment between the
01:02:39.780divine order or the most fundamental instinct and well and everything and and the and the and the
01:02:47.740integrity of the individual psyche the stability and productivity of the community and the harmony
01:02:53.480of the natural world all that what is god offer abraham he says if you take the risk if you step
01:03:01.040out of your zone of comfort if you move into the terrible world away from the comforts of your
01:03:08.180infantile security then you'll be a blessing to yourself well that's a good deal you know are you
01:03:17.060a blessing to yourself it's a rare person who can say that you know most most of us narcissists
01:03:23.320accepted are harder on ourselves emotionally and in judgment than we are on other people
01:03:28.740right are than we are with regard to other people there are people who judge others more harshly
01:03:34.840than themselves but they're not the standard person the standard person firmly aware of their
01:03:40.080insufficiencies and false has a very difficult time being a blessing to themselves right that's
01:03:46.740a hard thing to pull off and i don't mean to be self-satisfied and self-aggrandizing i mean to
01:03:52.040what would you say to sleep the sound sleep of the man or woman whose conscience is at rest
01:04:00.320right and who are fulfilling their moral obligations to their future selves and and to
01:04:06.680the community that's to be a blessing to yourself that's a good deal if you could pull it off and
01:04:11.380god's offer to abraham is if he follows the call to adventure with without reservation and makes
01:04:21.080the proper sacrifices along the way then that's the mode of existence that will come to characterize
01:04:28.860his being right and you know there's some evidence for this as people mature as they become older
01:04:37.280they become more emotionally stable so less neurotic less prone to pain and anxiety they
01:04:42.760become more compassionate and empathic or at least broader in their ability to do that
01:04:47.540and they become more conscientious more reliable and dutiful there is an expansion of character that
01:04:53.380is a measurable part of maturation and um i certainly noticed on my sporadic trips home
01:05:01.740to my hometown when i encounter people that i knew in high school you know when i encountered
01:05:07.200them five years later 10 years later 20 or 30 or now 40 years later 45 years later they're much
01:05:15.400better than they were in high school many of them were completely insufferable as i was no doubt in
01:05:20.780high school and as adults they're they've had some sense beaten into them let's say and so they're
01:05:27.900they're they're more who they should be you know it doesn't happen to everyone but it's the standard
01:05:35.800course of human development certainly what you hope for yourself and for the people that you love
01:05:40.360it's what you want to foster in your marriage and within the confines of your family and that's real
01:05:46.400you want people who are around you that are reliable and trustworthy and maybe you want to
01:05:50.920be one of those people yourself and that would be part of being a blessing to yourself and
01:05:55.700what God tells Abraham is that that's the same as following the spirit of adventure
01:05:59.840God that's such a great deal right if if your wildest dream let's say a true dream let's say
01:06:07.160though one that would be made by someone who was sensible with their eyes open and reliable
01:06:11.880if you could follow your heart's content let's say in the highest sense that that would actually
01:06:19.100produce for you the mode of being that would make you a blessing to yourself god that's a great deal
01:06:25.040right you could have your cake and eat it too in a situation like that and why would it be otherwise
01:06:30.980And that isn't the offer, that's only a bit of the offer, because God tells Abraham, if you follow the pathway of adventure, then the adventure that calls to you in the deepest sense, then your name will, your reputation will validly grow.
01:06:49.760well that's a good deal you know you store value in your reputation socially right it's the most
01:06:58.520reliable place to put your investment is to act in a manner that makes all the people who know
01:07:06.520you regard you as trustworthy and reliable and honest and and and fair dealing and they're in
01:07:14.420a crisis not least because if you are that person and you are in a crisis the people that you've
01:07:21.440acted properly towards are going to be thrilled to have the opportunity to reciprocate right and
01:07:26.560that's the basis of community you put some work into aiding others maybe even your enemies if you
01:07:33.300could even manage that you put some work into sacrificing yourself and your whims in a manner
01:07:41.160that's of aid to the community and then you build around you this storehouse of reputation that
01:07:47.020is the most reliable form of wealth and security imaginable right and so that's the next offering
01:07:54.280to abraham follow the pathway of adventure become a blessing to yourself in a manner that will
01:07:59.760establish your relationship far and wide and validly not narcissistically not in a way that
01:08:07.020makes you aggrandize yourself or advertise yourself but in that reputational manner that
01:08:13.660makes everyone in a small town know exactly which carpenter to call let's say if they actually want
01:08:20.020the job done right which is that's the brand you might say brand value that's the central core
01:08:28.100treasure of any genuine enterprise right so that's the next thing that's on offer so that's
01:08:35.720a good deal you get to have your adventure you get to be a blessing to yourself and your reputation
01:08:40.660grows and validly hey and that's great because part of our orientation towards community is our
01:08:48.460hope that we'll be celebrated validly by the people around us and that can go astray like all
01:08:57.400motivations and potential gifts but there's nothing wrong with
01:39:44.080And, well, that's the gospel story fundamentally, right?
01:39:48.640It's because Christ is the man who faces the ultimate trial
01:39:51.940and the promise of the story is that if you do that voluntarily
01:39:57.580then death and hell itself are defeated
01:40:01.680And again, I think, how could it be any other way?
01:40:05.780Because the alternative would be that you could withdraw from the fray, that you could hide from the reality of the world, that you could pretend that mortality and evil didn't exist, that you could hide and that victory would be yours.
01:40:20.260And no one's foolish enough to think that.
01:40:22.940I mean, obviously, no challenge that you don't take on is a challenge that you can prevail over, obviously.
01:40:30.480And so what's the logical conclusion of that?
01:40:33.240It's the logical conclusion is that you should be up for anything because you could be.
01:40:39.600And that if you were, that's the thing that occurs in the miraculous gospel narrative is that the degree to which God is present with you is precisely proportionate to your faith, right?
01:40:52.620And the faith is evinced by your willingness to contend with catastrophe and malevolence because that's the real challenge.
01:41:00.700And so if you are up for that, then the God of your ancestors takes root within you and enables you to prevail.
01:41:09.540And I don't think there is a more accurate way to tell that story.
01:41:13.380I think that's, you know, when you face challenge, you grow.